A corporate culture audit can help you identify areas of improvement. But the real question isn’t whether your company has a culture. It’s whether it’s working for you.
It is a fact that the most successful companies have a clearly defined and well-communicated corporate culture. But how do you know when your company culture is strong enough to attract, engage and retain top talent? The answer lies in identifying and evaluating your corporate culture and then making sure you have a clear understanding of what needs to change. In this article, we’ll look at how to assess your company culture and identify where you’re falling short.
Identify the Culture
The first step is to take stock of your company culture. You want to understand not only what you already do and why you do it, but also what you don’t do. Ask yourself: What does your company value? What are your core values? What is your brand’s personality? What are your core competencies? How do you treat your customers? These questions can help you define your company’s culture and set goals for change. If you’re looking for a deeper dive into culture assessment, we recommend reading our blog post on the different ways to evaluate your company culture. If you don’t know your company culture, you’ll have a hard time making a plan for improvement. Your corporate culture can be expressed in a number of ways, including:
The way your employees interact with each other (e.g., formal, informal)
The type of leadership style you use (e.g., autocratic, consultative, participatory)
The type of work environment you offer (e.g., open office spaces, closed offices)
How you treat your customers (e.g., responsive, unresponsive)
How you communicate with your employees (e.g., email, in person)
What you do to retain your top talent (e.g., pay, benefits, training, flexibility)
What you do to attract new talent (e.g., job description, recruiting strategy)
Your corporate philosophy (e.g., high-touch, low-touch, hybrid)
How you manage change (e.g.
Create a Roadmap
For Improvement Next, decide how you want to improve your company culture. For example, if you’re looking to improve customer service, the first step is to identify the current state of affairs. Do your customers feel they’re being treated with respect? Do you offer them a variety of options when it comes to your products and services? Are you responsive to their needs? Do you deliver on time? Do you make your employees feel valued? Once you have a clear understanding of what’s going wrong, you can start to brainstorm ideas for improvement.
Identify Key Performance Indicators After you have a clear understanding of what’s going wrong, it’s time to decide which areas you want to improve. You can choose from any number of metrics, including • Customer service • Employee engagement • Productivity • Time management • Product quality • Employee satisfaction • Morale • Customer loyalty • Organizational effectiveness • Innovation • Brand image • Market share • Employee retention • Sales • Profit • Shareholder value
Understand the Culture
Understand the Culture Understand the culture of your company before you can work to improve it. If you don’t know your company’s culture, you can use an online assessment tool to get a better sense of it. The results will help you determine what changes you need to make. What is your company’s culture? Do your employees treat each other with respect? Do they get along well? Do they appreciate one another? Do they like their jobs and the people they work with? Do they have the opportunity to advance within the company?
Build the Case for Change
Once you’ve identified the areas where you need to improve, it’s time to build a case for change. The first step is to talk to people in different departments. You can get them on board by presenting your idea to them in a way that makes sense. It is also important to get their input. If they don’t agree, try to understand why they think that way. It is important to respect their opinions.
Communicate Your Ideas It is important to communicate your ideas to others. You can make a presentation, send out an e-mail, or simply walk up to a colleague and have a conversation about your ideas. The key is to be clear about what you want to do and why it is important. Don’t go into the meeting with preconceived ideas and assumptions.
Take Action Now that you’ve communicated your ideas, it’s time to take action. Your actions should be specific and measurable. For example, if you’re looking to improve employee engagement, you can set up a meeting between management and the employees to discuss how they can be more engaged. If you want to increase productivity, you can implement new software that will make it easier for people to work together. If you want to reduce customer complaints, you can install a call centre software system that will allow you to track and respond to issues.
Be Patient, It takes time for people to change their behaviour. It is important to remember that it is not going to happen overnight. You may need to put in some extra effort before you see a change in the culture of your company.
Keep an Eye on the Competition It is important to keep an eye on the competition. You can use social media to keep an eye on what other companies are doing. If your competitors are making changes, you can learn from their mistakes and improve your own company’s culture.
Evaluate Your Results After you have implemented some changes, it is important to evaluate your results. Are your efforts having an impact? How do you feel about the changes that you have made? Do you think that your employees are happier and more engaged because of your changes? You can use this feedback to make adjustments.
Continue to Improve The last step is to continue to improve. You will need to evaluate your results from time to time to see if there are any areas where you need to make improvements. It is important to be flexible and willing to change if things aren’t working out the way you want them to. Your career is a journey. The key to success is to keep improving yourself. It’s never too late to start.
